VMware Unveils Horizon Suite Workforce Mobility Platform

Virtualization and cloud infrastructure specialist VMware announced the release of its Horizon Suite, a platform for workforce mobility designed to connect users to their data, applications and desktops on any device.

The suite combines VMware’s desktop virtualization solution and other technologies from the company, including Project Octopus, Project AppBlast, Project AppShift, VMware ThinApp, Horizon Application Manager and Horizon Mobile. Updates to the company’s Horizon View and Horizon Mirage services were also included in the launch of the Horizon Suite.

Horizon View 5.2 offers elastic desktop services as a virtual workspace, including simplified access to remote Horizon View desktops using any HTML 5 capable browser, support for hardware-accelerated 3D graphics and a gesture-oriented interface for a more tablet-friendly user experience.

Horizon Mirage 4 is a layered image-management solution that separates the PC into logical layers owned and managed by either IT or the end user. The platform is designed to give IT workers the ability to update individual layers without disruption to other layers, bringing end-user data and applications up-to-date.

In addition, integration with VMware ThinApp application virtualization streamlines application packaging, which can enable smoother OS migrations and provide “roll-back” capabilities in case of failure or disaster. Horizon Mirage 4 also extends support for virtual Windows environments on Macs with a free bundle of VMware Fusion Professional.

VMware’s Horizon Workspace is a new product that combines data, applications and desktops into a single aggregated workspace that can be securely delivered on a variety of devices, company officials said. Workspace is also designed to enable organizations to add new devices, users or applications without having to reconfigure the devices or endpoints.

Horizon Suite is expected to be available in the first quarter of this year and customers will have the option to leverage the entire platform of integrated products or purchase and deploy specific capabilities of the platform, depending on the company’s needs. The suite will be licensed per named user with prices starting at $300, and all of the Horizon Suite products will also be sold individually, a VMware release noted.

“Our customers are looking for a comprehensive, enterprise-class solution to empower workers in a world where the proliferation of devices and consumer cloud services have changed user expectations, while putting IT security and governance at risk,” Boaz Chalamish, VMware senior vice president and general manager of end-user computing, said in a statement. “VMware virtualization has helped hundreds of thousands of customers change what is possible in the data center, and we believe it can have the same transformative impact in end-user computing. The Horizon Suite will help our customers accelerate their journeys from the PC era to the multi-device era.”